THE BEST Of TIMES, THE WORST Of TIMES

[SQu]

I'm also going to the mountains for 10 days and so looking forward to it, though it is autumn here so not sure about age regressing - but some cool crisp weather and relief from the heat might help!

 

[charlie]

It's spring here finally... and while I live in the foothills, I guess I need to take a trip further up into the mountains with friends (and drop acid), NO I'M KIDDING!!!....anyways, I'm hoping to optimize several basic regulatory systems and age-regress!

 

[thebigpeatowski]

TEN days...That's awesome sueq! Oh you'll age regress for sure, it's all a matter of your mind set...and being away from all the electronics and distractions helps. HAVE A SUPERBLY RELAXING TIME!!!

 

[thebigpeatowski]

Been a few weeks since I updated...I successfully switched over from Armour Thyroid (which is total sh*t in my opinion) to Cynoplus. Some background on my thyroid medication: I was originally taking one grain of Armour in the morning and it didn't do anything, but because my labs were "normal" my doc would not adjust up. After the worst winter of my life, I decided to take matters into my own hands starting in JAN. I began splitting pills for weeks taking 1 1/2 grains for several weeks and then finally upped it to two full grains. I still did not feel much different and no real raise in body temp or pulse. I now take 1/2 Cynoplus in the morning and the other half in the evening and I feel waaaaay better. So far Cynoplus seems to be better medication for me and I LOVE that I can get it on my own and take care of myself!!!

I do occasionally add a tiny bit of Cynomel if I feel like I need it, which happens to occur premenstrually for some reason. However, today is day two of my period and I have not taken or needed any Cynomel. At noonthirty my temp was 99.3 and pulse 78, I feel totally normal for the first time in YEARS. Once again, I had absolutely NO PMS, this turned out to be a 29 day cycle and I had quit the Progest-E on day 27.

I notice that I need to eat smaller meals and more often to keep temps up. My appetite has increased and yet I have lost another pound (with any calorie restriction whatsoever) and in spite of having my period, no bloating, no edema.

I still have acne issues and am now experimenting with vit. A. as I can only eat so much liver. Wouldn't it be awesome if ice cream cured zits?

I bought a book on weight lifting and am gonna see if I can add a tiny bit of exercise without disrupting my progress.

My sleep in peaceful, I no longer wake up to pee. I no longer wake up with my heart pounding and hyperventilating. I have not had a nightmare in months. I do have to eat a snack before bed or else I will wake up starving entirely too early.

Will post more as skin improves...and yes, even though it is currently atrocious, I am POSITIVE that it will improve. Everything else has improved so far: mood, sleep, digestion, menstrual cycles, beard...so I am convinced that this too shall be a thing of the past.

 

[thebigpeatowski]

Brief update: it is 3:15 p.m. here and I have just finished my carrot salad. In the beginning I was melting coconut oil and drizzling over the grated carrots, but it would of course get all clumpy and not coat the fibers. I got really tired of that and began to just eat the raw carrot plain, but I dipped it in a mixture of coconut oil salt and honey... quite yummy.

Now I am back to grating the carrot in my food processor, but now I'm using MCT oil with the vinegar and salt, it mixes way better, more like salad dressing and I like it very much. This concoction seems to be a cure for SIBO. I drink some homemade lemonade along with it. A mixture of the juice of one fresh squeezed lemon, local raw honey and sparkling mineral water (from a glass bottle, j so no worries)

I will be drastically but slowly upping my intake of coconut oil and MCT oil and seeing what happens metabolically.

I am now taking lots of B vitamins and feeling AWESOME. I have NO idea how or why they work, but they are practically a life saver.

I am now down 8 pounds from my where I peaked out in this whole experiment and I have not added any exercise yet.

I am taking LESS Cynoplus, just started reducing the evening dose a few days ago. For now I am taking 1/2 in the morning and adding bits of Cynomel as needed....so far so good.

 

[SQu]

remarkable progress! I remember your first post. What a long way you've come! I know it's lots of things but did you find progesterone especially helpful?

 

[thebigpeatowski]

remarkable progress! I remember your first post. What a long way you've come! I know it's lots of things but did you find progesterone especially helpful?

Hi sueq, yes Progest-E is a miracle for me. The difference is amazing and I take far less now while still experiencing NO PMS. Switching my thyroid medication has also been HUGE, I'm convinced that the Armour thyroid I have been taking for years is junk.

I think in my very first post I was complaining endlesslessly about weight gain, I had no idea how broken my metabolism was. My initial inability to process carbs was frightening. I thought I was permanently broken, thankfully I wasn't!

I was so scared that I would gain ALL of my weight back. I didn't. I still have a long way to go, but it's spring and I have so much more energy now....looking back, it certainly was rough. I can see why people bail on this type of diet. I'm glad I stuck to it, otherwise I might still believe that carbs make me fat.

We are hardwired with tastes buds to enjoy sweet foods. Our mouths contain amylase for predigesting carbohydrates. I find carbs to be very soothing. Fruit is abundant. Dairy is DELISH. I think vilifying an entire macronutrient and/or food groups is dumb now. But I certainly was a paleo believer prior to this experiment....oh well, live and learn.

 

[SQu]

I think of all the stories I read here that start with people needing help and quickly getting results, it's the progesterone stories that pack the most punch. Especially for bleeding. I'm excited because I just found it in capsule form in I think 25mg strength. Going to have a bash at making my own progest-e with vitamin e oil and see if that works, it will save me a fortune as I'm going through a tub of the transdermal cream I use 2 about $35 at least twice a month.

 

[thebigpeatowski]

So in my effort to lose weight, my metabolism took a turn for the worse. Calorie restriction and moderate walking both resulted in lower body temps and my digestion took a SERIOUS hit. Perhaps the combination of taking less Progest-E and releasing body fat too quickly during my luteal phase was just too much for my body to handle, I don't know I am merely guessing at this point.

I am waiting for blood work to rule out something more serious regarding my digestive issues and while I wait I am trying to focus on things that have improved while Peating:

My fingernails and toenails have started to grow and are WAAAY thicker and stronger. Really kind of amazing actually as I have not had fingernails like this since I was in college. My toenails had completely stopped growing last year and had huge deep waves in them. The waves are moving forward and I will be able to clip them off soon and the nail beds behind are perfectly smooth. The waves were so deep that I could no longer use nail polish as it accentuated the horrid looking deep ridges...looking forward to those being GONE, perhaps in time for summer!

My hair has stopped falling out and it appears that my eyebrows are growing back in....very cool.

My skin, while certainly not ideal is getting better...slowly, but surely. While these are sort of superficial things, I think that they are good signs of obvious measurable progress.

My totally uneducated opinion is that my intestines have much healing to do and that my body, in it's infinite wisdom, know how to prioritize that desperately needed healing. At this point I do not think calorie restriction is going to help me in any way shape or form. I believe my body is desperate for intensely deep nutrition. The hard part is that I also think the extra weight that I am carrying is contributing to too much estrogen and stress, so I am in a bit of a hormonal dilemma.

I ordered more Progest-E and WILL NOT be skimping on that ever again.

I will post labs when I get them...

 

[Mittir]

The hard part is that I also think the extra weight that I am carrying is contributing to too much estrogen and stress, so I am in a bit of a hormonal dilemma.

I am not sure what you meant by extra weight, is it extra PUFA in stored fat
or any kind stored fat? I have read that stored fat increases estrogen before
finding Ray Peat. They did not differentiate between saturated and unsaturated
fat.RP's exlpanation is that as long as stored fat is saturated then there is
no harm in it. PUFA and estrogen increases each others actions.
You can use niacinamide or Aspirin to block this PUFA release and
vitamin E to protect against oxidative damage done by PUFA.
Vitamin E is also anti-estrogenic. RP has mentioned that one can eat
extra carbohydrate to make pure saturated fat by the body and that will
change the body's Saturated fat to PUFA ratio in a favorable direction.
If someone is gaining fat in a very low PUFA diet, the accumulation of
saturated fat is protective. I am not suggesting that we over eat and gain fat.
But if someone is gaining saturated fat in a low PUFA diet then there is
no need to worry about worsening of estrogen problem.

 

[thebigpeatowski]

The hard part is that I also think the extra weight that I am carrying is contributing to too much estrogen and stress, so I am in a bit of a hormonal dilemma.

I am not sure what you meant by extra weight, is it extra PUFA in stored fat
or any kind stored fat? I have read that stored fat increases estrogen before
finding Ray Peat. They did not differentiate between saturated and unsaturated
fat.RP's exlpanation is that as long as stored fat is saturated then there is
no harm in it. PUFA and estrogen increases each others actions.
You can use niacinamide or Aspirin to block this PUFA release and
vitamin E to protect against oxidative damage done by PUFA.
Vitamin E is also anti-estrogenic. RP has mentioned that one can eat
extra carbohydrate to make pure saturated fat by the body and that will
change the body's Saturated fat to PUFA ratio in a favorable direction.
If someone is gaining fat in a very low PUFA diet, the accumulation of
saturated fat is protective. I am not suggesting that we over eat and gain fat.
But if someone is gaining saturated fat in a low PUFA diet then there is
no need to worry about worsening of estrogen problem.

Thank you Mittir... you have a knack for making me feel so much better about my thirty pounds of excess flesh

Only half of this fat came to me by way of Peating while strictly avoiding PUFA. Just prior to finding RP I ate a TON of nuts & seeds, bacon, avocados, flax seed oil, fatty fish, fermented foods and fish oil all while extremely low carbohydrate. I ate like this for two and a half years with no issues and then my metabolism began to slow down noticeably. I began to gain weight for no apparent reason in late 2013: I was very cold, had NO energy, stressed out all the time, chronic joint pain and I could not sleep at night. My skin would not heal, my nails stopped growing etc. etc. etc. This is why I went looking for another way to eat, I was deteriorating right before my very eyes.

So while I have avoided crappy industrial oils/foods for years, I was still consuming waaay too much PUFA and that is why I think I must have quite a bit stored. I heard the body preferentially burns saturated fats and stores the PUFA. My only saving grace might be that I was consuming large amounts of vit.E, coconut oil and grass-fed butter at the time as well....oh well, who knows?

I can say that many many things have improved since Peating so I am definitely sticking with it. I quit gaining a while ago and have since lost ten pounds, but I feel like this last cycle for me was extra challenging (physically and emotionally)....I am NOT gonna go through another cycle without lots of Progest-E.

I did purchase some niacinamide powder and I do take aspirin on occasion, but I'm not perfectly clear on how much to take and when.

I feel very fortunate to have discovered RP's work.

 

[thebigpeatowski]

One more quick note: In my effort to lose weight I had read that lowering fat intake was an important goal. So several weeks ago I started drinking commercial organic pasteurized 1% A & D milk in place of the whole raw grass-fed milk that I get from my neighbor. I have no idea if this was the only contributing factor to my recent gut issues, but things definitely got incrementally and progressively worse. I quit the 1% and went back to my whole raw milk and have been fine since. I have NO idea why my sensitive guts cannot handle normal milk, but in my opinion, the low fat calorie savings just are not worth the digestive duress.

 

[Blossom]

One more quick note: In my effort to lose weight I had read that lowering fat intake was an important goal. So several weeks ago I started drinking commercial organic pasteurized 1% A & D milk in place of the whole raw grass-fed milk that I get from my neighbor. I have no idea if this was the only contributing factor to my recent gut issues, but things definitely got incrementally and progressively worse. I quit the 1% and went back to my whole raw milk and have been fine since. I have NO idea why my sensitive guts cannot handle normal milk, but in my opinion, the low fat calorie savings just are not worth the digestive duress.

I just started tolerating the commercial organic 1% milk about 1 month ago. So you could say it took over 7.5 months for me to get to the point of tolerance. I think it's the added vitamins that potentially cause problems for us super sensitive people. Hang in there!

 

[thebigpeatowski]

Thanks Blossom! I drank commercial milk pretty much my whole life growing up. I have never had a problem drinking milk, which is why I did not suspect it at all in the beginning.

My cyproheptadine arrived today so now I am prepared if my intestines decide to go crazy on me again.

 

[Blossom]

YAY!!! great news BP. Keep us posted!

 

[BingDing]

I drank commercial milk my whole life, too, BP, and never had any problems (that I recognized). But after a few months or so drinking clean, raw milk, I couldn't stand commercial milk so I didn't drink it.

I also cut back on fats several months ago but kept the whole milk and quit supplementing coconut oil. Three grams of NOW brand MCT in gelcaps is all I use other than cooking. My one concession re dairy is I use half and half in my coffee rather than heavy cream now,

You can try low fat clean milk by skimming the cream off raw milk

It's great reading about your progress as a Peatnik!

BD

 

[Mittir]

One more quick note: In my effort to lose weight I had read that lowering fat intake was an important goal. So several weeks ago I started drinking commercial organic pasteurized 1% A & D milk in place of the whole raw grass-fed milk that I get from my neighbor. I have no idea if this was the only contributing factor to my recent gut issues, but things definitely got incrementally and progressively worse. I quit the 1% and went back to my whole raw milk and have been fine since. I have NO idea why my sensitive guts cannot handle normal milk, but in my opinion, the low fat calorie savings just are not worth the digestive duress.

It is good news that you have finally figure out the source of problem.
I think many people suffer when they switch to RP style eating
by introducing a whole set of new foods, not knowing which food
is causing allergenic reaction. It is very important that you make a note
whenever you introduce a new food or supplement. Nothing should be
beyond suspicion. Few months ago i was having bad allergic reaction and could not
figure out the source. Then i found out that we were using same type of rice from
different brand. In theory, they should be same, but in reality they are not.
RP has mentioned that raw milk has lot more bacteria than pasteurized milk
and hypothyroid people usually have problem adjusting to new bacteria.
Allergenicity of milk also depends on the food cows eat.
I think your gut flora is adjusted to raw milk now and new type
of bacteria in commercial milk is causing problem.


You can easily make a low fat version of raw milk by keeping
it in a jar and skim off fat from the top. RP has mentioned the
experiment of William Brown in many interviews. He was following a
very low fat dairy diet with a lot of sucrose, which cured his migraine and
improved his health in many ways. He also lost some weight.
Here is a description of his diet

The diet was limited to sucrose, potato starch, baking
powder, sodium chloride, ferric citrate, viosterol, carotene
(vitamin A), orange juice, citric acid, anise oil, liquid petrola
tum and milk practically freed of its fat. The daily protein
intake was derived from 3 quarts of the specially defatted
milk, taken as such, and the cottage cheese made from an
additional quart of the same milk. Sucrose provided the bulk
of the carbohydrate allowance but was supplemented by a
biscuit made from potato starch, skimmed milk, baking pow
der, salt and mineral oil. The mineral oil was added to serve
as shortening and to prevent constipation. Daily supplements
of 10 mg. of ferric citrate, 2.5 mg. of carotene, 0.02 cc. con
centrated viosterol in oil (8000 U.S.P. units vitamin D) and
the juice from one-half of a large orange were given to insure
an adequate supply of iron and of vitamins. That the diet
was of the extremely 'low-fat,' rather than the 'fat-free,'

"

In the "Sugar Issues" article RP gave a description of all the benefits from this diet.
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/sugar-issues.shtml

 

[SQu]

On milk, I find that different brands perform differently when making farmer's cheese. Some do well, form a nice elastic texture and leave thin greenish whey behind. Raw milk from local cows unsurprisingly does best. But Others won't clump nicely. Organic low fat milk surprisingly was terrible. I'm guessing it's a test of whether they're adding milk powder or otherwise messing with it in undisclosed ways. Longwinded way of saying that if you suspect you react badly to such treatment this test could help!

 

[thebigpeatowski]

I drank commercial milk my whole life, too, BP, and never had any problems (that I recognized). But after a few months or so drinking clean, raw milk, I couldn't stand commercial milk so I didn't drink it.

I also cut back on fats several months ago but kept the whole milk and quit supplementing coconut oil. Three grams of NOW brand MCT in gelcaps is all I use other than cooking. My one concession re dairy is I use half and half in my coffee rather than heavy cream now,

You can try low fat clean milk by skimming the cream off raw milk

It's great reading about your progress as a Peatnik!

BD

Thanks BingDing...I really prefer whole raw milk too, so that is what I am sticking with. Yes, I could skim it, but then I would be skimming off fat soluble vitamins and at $10 a gallon, I would not want to throw that out. I would end up using the skimmed cream in my coffee and so then I am back to where I started. I love cafe au lait with my raw milk....LOVE IT DEARLY!

 

[thebigpeatowski]

So I went to my doctor yesterday, I took all my recent labs and explained to her how I thought the Armour thyroid was NOT working for me and that I had switched myself over to Cynoplus. I also explained my dietary changes and my current digestive issues. She looked over everything and read back through all of my previous visits and suddenly declared that I have IBS. She was so proud of herself. I hated to burst her bubble, but of course I spoke my mind and told her that I believed that to be a bogus diagnosis. Then she pronounced that I must have SIBO, yes that was it!!! And did I happen to read the flyer on SIBO that they had posted in the waiting room? I just looked at her and said yes indeed, I have had all of those symptoms too, but then told her that was sorta secondary as well. I told her that I am certain that it is all related to my long standing massively under treated hypothyroidism. She sat there and looked at me with shock and utter confusion and said: "What do you mean?" "They have nothing to do with each other?".....She is so compartmentalized in her thinking that she could not see the bigger picture. I had to hold her hand and explain how I believe all of the symptoms to be related. Then she said "Well, it doesn't really matter, I have to put a code down so IBS and SIBO it is!" ....officially. Why do I even bother?


I am continuing to tweak my diet and try to find any offending foods that might be contributing to my erratic gut inflammation. While antihistamines work great as a temporary fix, I cannot use them long term as they cause me secondary side effects like severely dry eyes and sinuses (complete with a bloody nose on two occasions). I do not seem to need them everyday which is nice.



I will be trying a supplement of Diamine Oxidase as an experiment.


I am wondering why I never had a problem with foods/histamine/ biogenic amines etc. before Peating....anyone know why this lifestyle (reducing estrogen & serotonin) might suddenly bring up amine issues???

Please, what am I missing? Why would actively reducing estrogen and iron and serotonin suddenly cause histamine intolerance? Anyone?

My thought is that I have gained so much weight that now ESTROGEN has become the monster, whereas when I ate Paleo I was not fat and so it wasn't a problem. I was diagnosed with estrogen dominance way back in 1998, but I was morbidly obese back then....a good eighty pounds overweight and eating a standard american diet.

EXCESS BODY FAT = EXCESS ESTROGEN....EXCESS ESTROGEN = EXCESS HISTAMINE = DIARRHEA But why wouldn't the Progest-E help with that? FerGoodnessSake I take enough!!!

I dunno....just a thought. Will post more on DAO enzyme experiment...